Luis Ernesto Quesada dominated the triangular tournament that defined the National Absolute Chess Championship in the city of Holguin.

Luis Ernesto closed the classic games segment with seven points, but that was a figure also reached by Havana’s Omar Almeida and Camagüey’s Carlos Daniel Albornoz and that caused to resort to what was stipulated in the rules: the definition of the champion would be with a rapid match event.

In the farewell round, Luis Ernesto made peace with Ermes Espinosa from Villaclareño, and similar outcomes were experienced by Almeida against Michel Alejandro Diaz from Tunera, and Albornoz against Lelys Martinez from Santiago de Cuba.

With that scenario in place, the triangular match agreed to double round and with 10-minute bouts, plus 15 seconds of increment after each move, began.

Almeida started off better by defeating Albornoz and reaching a draw with Luis Ernesto; shortly after, he repeated his success against the player from Agramontino and when he seemed to have almost won the crown, he lost in the second match against the player from Avila.

The attention was then focused on the table where Luis Ernesto and Albornoz sat. A draw would open the doors of the throne to Almeida, but it did not happen, fortunately for the former.

This is the first crown for Albornoz, currently second in the national ranking with 2,560 Elo points, something that made him appear among the favorites prior to the tournament.

In addition, he now returns home with the added bonus of securing a direct place in the Cuban team that in September will participate in the Chess Olympiad of Budapest 2024.

Almeida finished in second place, ahead of Albornoz. They were followed in the following order by Lelys (6.5 points), Dylan Berdayes (6) and Kemel Gallo (6).

Completing the top 10 were Michel Alejandro (6), Camagüey’s Jorge Roberto Elías (6), Ermes (5.5) and local Rider Díaz (5.5).